THE GARDA commissioner has received a criminal complaint alleging that assistant commissioner Derek Byrne physically restrained and falsely imprisoned a garda whistleblower in a hotel in Monaghan last month.

Byrne had been appointed to oversee an internal investigation after a garda made a number of serious allegations against his colleagues in the Cavan/ Monaghan area.

He claimed gardaí failed to investigate certain serious crimes including a sexual assault, physical assault, a case of false imprisonment and hijacking.

The whistleblower also alleged that some officers regularly turned up drunk to work. The garda, who has been moved from his station in the Bailieborough district since he made his complaint, also claimed that gardaí posted information about a victim of domestic violence on Bebo, the social-networking website.

The accusations were made in a report passed to Brian McCarthy, former sec retary-general to President McAleese.

McCarthy was appointed by the government to receive confidential information from gardaí who want to report corruption and wrongdoing in the force. As a result, a major internal investigation was launched in May 2008, led by assistant commissioner Byrne.

Slightly off topic, but relevant all the same. This clip is from Mayday 2002 and it shows the attitude that is prevalent within the gardaí, how obvious it is and it indicates how reluctant the force is to clean up its act.

There's a danger that folks might take their eye off this ball and focus on the assistant commissioner. Remember that the whistleblower brought "boxes of documents" to this meeting. That sounds extremely serious to me. It would seem that rather than investigate the contents of these boxes, the person who obtained these documents is going to be investigated for taking them.

An Garda Síochána is a failed entity and they should be disbanded. All allegations should be investigated by an independent body (not the ombudsman/garda complaints board) and individuals accused should not be immune to justice. We do not have two laws in this country, we have three: one for the rich, one for the poor and there is another: one for the gardaí.

Its certainly time that the Gardai were made accountable and not just to another Garda. Some Gardai are still acting the bootboy on behalf of the local priest as well. There was an unsavoury incident involving a detective and two uniformed Garda waving the back of a fag packet at a woman who had accused a local priest of sexual abuse in Wicklow and turning over her house.

Its time these people had to justify themselves. Otherwise they are nothing but a gang.

Think National. Act Local. Oh- and superstition is just the dark matter of human history.

It seems that the Sunday Times may be in breach of the 2005 Garda Síochána Act because the newspaper revealed the identity of the whistleblower a week after the Tribune ran the story that formed the basis of the OP.

THE GARDA commissioner is making enquiries to establish what action if any should be taken against the Sunday Times for a breach of legislation when it revealed a garda whistleblower's identity.

In November, the Sunday Times published the name of the whistleblower who made a confidential report alleging criminal malpractice against other gardaí in Co Cavan. The article followed revelations the week before in this newspaper about developments in the investigation into corruption in the county.

AN INTERNAL garda investigation into allegations of malpractice and indiscipline in the Cavan/Monaghan division has upheld complaints over the failure of officers to follow procedures, but found no evidence of corruption.The inquiry led by Derek Byrne, an assistant garda commissioner in charge of national support services, was established two years ago to investigate claims by Maurice McCabe, a sergeant in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.McCabe had claimed there was a breakdown in management at a station where he previously worked, and alleged that serious crimes were not properly investigated.The inquiry also examined claims that gardai in Cavan did not conduct proper investigations into serious incidents including physical and sexual assaults, and false imprisonment.The accusations were made by McCabe in a report passed to Brian McCarthy, a former secretary-general to President Mary McAleese. McCarthy was appointed by the government to receive confidential information from gardai who wanted to report

john Mooney referred to this story on Prime Time earlier saying that one of the whistleblowers had made serious complaints about Gardai in the Cavan Monaghan division 'most of which were disproved'.
So some 'disproved' in an internal investigation? What about the rest.

john Mooney referred to this story on Prime Time earlier saying that one of the whistleblowers had made serious complaints about Gardai in the Cavan Monaghan division 'most of which were disproved'.
So some 'disproved' in an internal investigation? What about the rest.

A bit of an apologist perhaps.

Talking about this now. Mooney says with authority that there was no evidence of the above whatsoever in the internal Garda inquiry. Well, who told him that ?

“ We cannot withdraw our cards from the game. Were we as silent and mute as stones, our very passivity would be an act. ”— Jean-Paul Sartre